Stridulation Sonnet by Jessica Jacobs

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend July 8, 2015   Stridulation Sonnet   Jessica Jacobs

Tiger beetles, crickets, velvet ants, all know the useful friction of part on part, how rub of wing to leg, plectrum to file, marks territories, summons mates. How   a lip rasped over finely tined ridges can play sweet as a needle on vinyl. But sometimes a lone body is insufficient. So the sapsucker drums chimney flashing   for our amped-up morning reveille. Or, later, home again, the wind’s papery come hither through the locust leaves. The roof arcing its tin back to meet the rain.   The bed’s soft creak as I roll to my side. What sounds will your body make against mine?            Copyright © 2015 by Jessica Jacobs. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “I wrote this poem during a summer visit to Asheville, North Carolina, where there was a tremendous thunderstorm nearly every night, followed by a chorus of crickets. From my wife Nickole Brown, a poet somewhat obsessed with insects, I learned these chirps signal either a warning from one male to another, an intended seduction, or a triumphant mating. So what could be more sensual and sonnet-worthy than that—a night holed up beneath a tin roof, listening first to the sky open up, then a thousand small creatures crying out for each other?” —Jessica Jacobs   Jessica Jacobs is the author of Pelvis with Distance (White Pine Press, 2015). She teaches at Hendrix College and lives in Little Rock, Arkansas.   Photo credit: Lily Darragh Poetry by Jacobs   Pelvis with Distance (White Pine Press, 2015) "The Supple Deer" by Jane Hirshfield "Black bird, red wing" by Nickole Brown "Mr. Darcy" by Victoria Chang Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038